Posts by Chuck Curtis
… usually one can find Tucker. Today he found his way on to the roof of the chicken coop. I’m not quite sure how he go there, it is a bit of a jump from the driveway wall. Maybe he jumped on the nesting boxes to get up.
And, yesterday, he pushed his way into the coop while I was building the run for the chickens. He sat in the corner not quite sure what to do – until Susanna and I got him out of the pen.
It has been a busy two weeks. I don’t write as much when life is crazy. Susanna got her green card and a full time job last week. They wanted her to start training this week, and she hasn’t even finished her last job. The boys start school and soccer this week.
I had been working on building a chicken coop and run. I told myself that I should finish one project before starting another project. Of course I don’t always listen to myself. For a month or so, Susanna and I had been planning on refinishing the living room floor this weekend. Of course things change. A new job. The boys’ schedule. Maybe in hindsight we should have pushed off the floor for a bit. But we didn’t. So I took a break from the chicken coop and over the weekend we finished the floor. The final coat went on last night. But I will save that for a later post when I can get good pictures of the floor. And I’m pretty sure it was worth doing the floor.
The chicken coop was finished yesterday and we picked up chickens from Mark and Jessica Matkovich this afternoon. The coop is 3′ x 8′ and is made from maple and red oak. The wood I had picked up for building the floor in the garage for the wedding, so was free. The shingles are left over from when the previous owner sided the workshop. I had some wire fencing left. The only materials I purchased for the coop was the chicken wire.
The wood was pretty wet when I milled it, so I plan on letting the coop dry for a couple of months and then painting it to match the house. I have to build a new compost bin (so I can take down the compost bin to the left of the coop) and build a bigger run for the chickens. I hope to finish that next weekend. But for now, the space should be enough for the 4 chickens.
I will have to add some more trim to the coop, and maybe another hinge to support the top. Susanna and I plan on trying to keep track of expenses to see how long it takes to pay off the investment for the coop.
So far our investment in the chickens:
The boys are very excited about the chickens. Susanna not so much. But we will get eggs (hopefully soon) and they should help compost table scraps.
My plans are to add a 4′ x 12′ covered run for the birds. This will give 24 square feet of coop space and 72 square feet of run. The compost bin will be at the far end of the run. I will move the feed and water into a protected part of the run – or at least the move the water out where it is easier to check and fill. I may replace the watering system with one that is easier to keep clean – hopefully thanks to the Sawyer farm.
It is Monday. That means going to work this morning. Although, these days, it might mean staying home on furlough. I’m doing a mix. I’ll take a couple of hours of furlough today and go into work late. The boys arrive today for the week and both boys have summer camp. Ben is going to basketball camp in Preston. Will is going to Project Oceanology camp in Groton. This morning there is orientation for parents at Will’s camp. Susanna and I will be heading to Groton with Will, and I’ll head into work after orientation.
I checked on the chicken coop this morning. No progress was made last night while I was asleep. Oh well. I guess that the fairies and elves that wander the woods behind the house were busy with other projects last night. Or maybe they saw the quality of the construction of the carcase and decided to take no part in the construction. Or maybe they just don’t like chickens.
The posts on the coop are made from red oak. The oak is milled to about 1″ thick. I take two 2″ wide sections and glued and screwed them at a right angle to make a L-shaped column. They are connected with oak stretchers. I’ll add the chicken wire around the base next, and then build the floor and ramp for the chickens. The walls and then a hinged roof will follow. To the left of the coop will be a run and new compost bins. The oak is pretty wet, so I won’t paint it until later in the year.
I started blogs for Will and Ben 18-months ago. They are a scrapbook of sorts for the boys, but using their own words. I plan on having the blogs printed into a book every year that they write in them (I already printed them books for last year). Currently the blogs are private and can only be viewed by registered guests. Of course it is more fun to play than to write in their blogs, but I have worked it out with them that they write a couple of days a week when they are at my house. Even Will has grudgingly admitted that it isn’t too bad to write, and it is cool to go back and look at what he has written. So an update on the blogs:
Will has 166 posts over 18 months, he wrote all but a handful of them. He has written 5,656 words with an average of 35 words per post.
Ben has 129 posts over the 18 months, and he also wrote all but a handful of them. He has written 4,752 words with an average of 38 words per post.
Great job boys!
Transition days are difficult. Difficult for Susanna and me; we have to get re-adjusted to either having the boys or having an empty house. But of course, most difficult for the boys; they have to adjust from living at one house to another. It is tough to watch them need time to adjust. It is difficult for the dogs. Okay, maybe not for the dogs; just extra exciting when the full pack is here, and normal exciting when not. I’m pretty sure nothing in life is too difficult for the dogs.
Today is no different. The boys take time to adjust. This morning they took time to write about their week at their grandmother’s house and are now taking time to relax on their electronics. But not for too long. It isn’t raining yet, so will be good to get outside and get some energy out.
I’m sure everyone works transitions differently. It is one of the stresses of a divorce. But one has to hope that two houses where the boys can find peace is better than only one house where there is no peace.
This week should be fun. So far the summer has been going very well. We will try to get some sailing in. Maybe visit Six Flags. The boys can have friends over. Susanna and I are only working two days each this week, so we should have lots of time to do family things. Maybe I can even convince the boys to help me weed the flower bed. But probably not.
Today was the first day of my 11-day summer furlough. I have to take (on average) one day every week for the next 11 weeks. My goal is to get some projects finished with my furlough time.
However, today wasn’t the most productive day. But at least I got something done. I didn’t get started until about 10 AM.
The morning was spent taking a load of bulky waste to the dump. Not the most glamorous of projects, but it makes a big difference at the house.
After lunch I weeded the garden and worked on replacing the hinges in the kitchen. The door hinges in the kitchen are one of the (I’m sure many) small unfinished projects around the house. When we painted the kitchen, the hinges no longer matched. And they always looked like crap anyway. So a couple of weeks (or maybe months) ago I ordered new hinges. The hinges have been sitting on top of the refrigerator since they arrived. At least I didn’t lose the hinges (it is the little improvements that help).
Today I took off the old hinges from the door to the sun porch. The new hinge screw holes didn’t line up perfectly with the old ones. I took a small dowel and used a knife to whittle the dowel down to fill the hole. I hammered the plug into place with a little wood glue, and then drilled the holes for the new hinges. It took under an hour to replace both hinges and rehang the door.
Now to replace the hinges on the two remaining doors in the kitchen…
As threatened earlier, here are some more scans of old photographs of me. I decided to include them in a post rather than in a photo gallery. Every year I print a book from the posts on this website. This way, the pictures will show up in the printed book. It is too hot outside to do much, so here I am, scanning pictures.
I’m pretty impressed with Will. Yesterday we went shopping – no going shopping isn’t impressive. While at the mall, we wandered into the education store. He found a robot arm kit in the store for $60. After thinking about it for a while, he decided that he wanted the robot and wanted to spend the day building it. He used his entire allowance savings to purchase the kit.
It took him over six hours to build it. I had to help solder a couple of broken wires for him, but for the most part, he did the work. Later in the evening, when he lost pieces, he didn’t get frustrated. He came downstairs and waited until I was finished with what I was doing and then asked for help. That isn’t always the case when kids get stuck in a big project. It is an even bigger accomplishment for a kid with ADHD (and even more so on a medication break day).
Good job Will! I certainly didn’t get as much accomplished yesterday as you did.
Some stories from the wedding and party (in no particular order). Of course, names were changed to protect the innocent. Okay, maybe they weren’t:
– The reception (for us) started when we pulled into the driveway. We were met at the end of the driveway by Vicki Sawyer, dressed in a nice white and blue dress. Covered in mud from playing in the yard. We knew that was a sign of a good start to the party.
– There are some very fun Swedish wedding traditions. One of the most fun is the tradition that allows people to kiss the bride when the groom is out of the room. I would like to thank the navy guys for leading the charge in maintaining Swedish tradition when I first stepped out of the room. However, the rule works both ways; when Susanna stepped out of the room, I was open to be kissed. And in the fine Swedish tradition – it is not gender specific. So I would also like to thank the navy guys for not leaving me out of that tradition. Just for the record, it wasn’t just the guys that kissed me (or Susanna for that matter).
– Leaving the sugar cubes out for the coffee wasn’t the best idea. The kids didn’t go for the alcohol. They went for sugar cubes. As far as I know, Tyler has the record with 11 sugar cubes that night. It also explains why he didn’t sleep very well.
-Yes, the Swedes and Americans can party. Lots of beer and wine helped. However, the 3rd and 4th graders can party as well. The boys were crazy after about 10pm. I think the sugar cubes helped. I think the boys stole lots of kisses from all the Swedish girls at the party (I won’t mention names…).
– And yes, 3rd and 4th grade boys will dance. If they are tired enough and given enough sugar cubes.
– Tucker was quite the center of attention at the party. He even wore a bow tie. However, the wait staff fed him enough people food that he didn’t want to eat anything at all the next day.
– Will and Ben loved pretending to be the Secret Service when dressed in their suits. They spent the half hour before the wedding ceremony at the door to the hall where we were waiting to make sure that people went into the correct door of the church. But they didn’t want to get out of the car at the end of the street and jog alongside for our drive to the reception. Go figure.
– In the strangest twist of behaviors – Will fidgeted less during the ceremony than Ben. However, both boys were amazing during the ceremony.
– Susanna cries at everything. Susanna’s sisters cry when Susanna cried. I think that made the first song they sung at the ceremony a little more difficult to get through.
– Rebecka and Sofia are wonderful singers. They sang two beautiful songs during the ceremony. Even if they weren’t “Does your mother know” and “Dancing Queen” by ABBA as I had requested.
– Our neighbor was the perfect wedding photographer. She even spent time during the days leading up to the wedding day taking photographs of us getting the house ready. She did this without telling us. I felt like a celebrity – we had our own personal paparazzi.
– The boys were super excited about the party, they even cleaned out the second floor of the garage (including vacuuming, until Will vacuumed over a toy sheep), and made it a hangout for those 12 and under.
– If you send a wedding invitation to the President, he won’t show up. But you will get a card congratulating you on the wedding. Not sure if it is the same if you send an invitation to the Swedish King (in hindsight maybe we should have sent him one).
I am thankful for all of our friends and family that were with us (in both person and spirit) to help us celebrate the start of the next big journey in our lives.
July 1st was a perfect day for our wedding. It rained all day, and poured during the ceremony. But it didn’t rain at the reception. It was hot and humid. And it was perfect. We both had fun. The boys had fun (maybe a little too much fun). I think all the guests had fun.
We had a small group of friends and family join us for our wedding and reception. We enjoyed a mix of wedding traditions. But of course both the Swedish and US traditions involve having an open bar. Though we apparently the Swedish weddings normally go later than we decided to party.
After a busy week getting ready, and long day enjoying the party, we are all trying to recover. We are all still a little rough around the edges – Six Flags yesterday with the boys didn’t help, but was worth it. I think today should be a good quiet day to recover. I’ll take some time later to post more pictures (and tell more stories).
